Plastic vortex pacific ocean

Coca-Cola, Walmart to cut plastic pollution in oceans, Photo: AFP/Getty Images Britain, Canada, France, Germany and Italy, along with the European Union, signed the Ocean Plastics Charter at a leaders' summit in Canada's Charlevoix region in June. The United States and Japan abstained but non-G7 nations Norway and Jamaica are also backing the plan to ensure 100 per cent of plastics are recyclable by 2030. The nations aim to develop more viable alternatives to plastic packaging, to work towards a goal of all plastics being recycled and reused by 2040. On the second day of a G7 ministerial meeting in Canada's Atlantic port city of Halifax, Canadian Environment Minister Catherine McKenna announced "a new partnership with businesses" to reduce plastics waste. Backers include Loblaws, Walmart, Nestle Canada, IKEA, Dow Chemicals, the Coca-Cola Company, BASF Canada and A&W Canada. Unilever also announced that it was launching a non-profit entity to reduce consumer and business waste, … [Read more...] about Coca-Cola, Walmart to cut plastic pollution in oceans

The third Indian Ocean Conference (IOC), themed “Building regional architectures”, Ha Noi, August 27-28, 2018 - Photo: VGP/Hai Minh The Deputy PM made that statement on August 27 at the third Indian Ocean Conference (IOC), themed “Building regional architectures”, which is co-organized by the Indian Foundation and the Diplomatic Academy of Viet Nam. Speaking at the opening ceremony, Deputy PM, FM Pham Binh Minh, Sri Lankan PM Ranil Wickremesinghe, Deputy PM and Health Minister of Nepal Upendra Yadav, Indian FM Sushma Swaraj and Singaporean FM Vivian Balakrishnan stressed the need to establish an inclusive regional architecture, respecting the international laws with the central role of ASEAN and based on respecting independence and sovereignty as well as facilitating to set up trust and interests for all sides. The Indian FM asserted that the connections between the Indian Ocean and the … [Read more...] about Connections between Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean highlighted

A collection of plastic afloat in the Pacific Ocean is growing rapidly, according to a new scientific estimate. Discarded fishing nets were part of the haul -- Photo: THE OCEAN CLEANUP Predictions suggest a build-up of about 80,000 tonnes of plastic in the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" between California and Hawaii. This figure is up to sixteen times higher than previously reported, say international researchers. One trawl in the centre of the patch had the highest concentration of plastic ever recorded. "Plastic concentration is increasing - I think the situation is getting worse," said Laurent Lebreton of The Ocean Cleanup Foundation in Delft, Netherlands, which led the study. "This really highlights the urgency to take action in stopping the in-flow of plastic into the ocean and also taking measures to clean up the existing mess." Waste accumulates in five ocean areas, the largest being the patch located between Hawaii and California. The researchers used boats and … [Read more...] about Plastic patch in Pacific Ocean growing rapidly, study shows

NASA's earth-observation satellite Glory apparently fell into the Pacific Ocean after a failed launch, a NASA official said early Friday. "All indications are that the satellite and rocket are in the southern Pacific Ocean somewhere," NASA launch director Omar Baez said at a news conference after the mishap. NASA said in a statement that the rocket's first three solid-fuel stages ignited as planned, but the protective shell atop the rocket, which lifted off about 2:10 a.m. PST (1010 GMT) from Vandenberg Air Force Base, did not separate as expected about three minutes after launch. "We are at T+plus 300 seconds," Richard Haenke, the ascent commentator, reported. "The vehicle speed error is indicating underperformance, which is expected due to a fairing not separating. We have a report the system did pressurize. However, we still have no indication of the fairing separating." That left the Glory spacecraft without the velocity to reach orbit, NASA launch commentator George Diller said. … [Read more...] about U.S. earth-observation satellite crashes into Pacific Ocean

Fragments of a defunct Russian military communications satellite, Molniya-1T, fell into the Pacific Ocean Saturday night, according to local media reports. The Russian state-owned news agency, RIA Novosti, quoted a space agency source as saying that the fragments, which did not burn up in the upper atmosphere, reached the earth's surface before plunging into the Pacific Ocean. The reports didn't identify the specific location where the satellite fragments might land. Spokesman of the Russian Aerospace Defense Forces Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin, however, predicted Friday the fragments might hit the Pacific waters at 3:17 a.m. Moscow time Saturday morning and the fragments might fall into the southern area of the Pacific Ocean at around 63 degrees South, 158 degrees East. The 1.6-tonne satellite was launched in August 1996 and was replaced by the Meridian-series in 2006. The service life of the Molniya-1T satellites is two years. VietNamNet/Xinhuanet … [Read more...] about Russian military satellite falls into Pacific Ocean: media